Often, products that don't fare too well on the market become among the
most sought after of collectibles. Take, for example, the case of the Super
Queens. The Super Queens were created by Ideal Toys in the mid '60s to try to
capitalize on two phenomenon of the day: the huge popularity of superhero action
figures and the huge popularity of dolls such as Barbie. And just because
superheroines weren't too popular in the comics, they thought, didn't mean they
wouldn't be a huge success in the toy market.

So, they created a series
of "comic heroines" based on DC Comics' Supergirl, Batgirl, Wonder Woman and
Mera, Queen of Atlantis. They were developed as the "Supergirl Series", but
became known as the Super Queens. At 11 ½" tall, these dolls came in fun
comic-art boxes, had real hair and plenty of clothes - from their super-costumes
with all their accessories to fabulous cotton halter dresses for their
alter-egos (with the exception, of course, of Mera). In fact, the advertising
for the Super Queens even suggested they could wear the clothes of other similar
11 ½" dolls. Of course, the Super Queens weren't just a bunch of
well-dressed girly-girls. Ideal took advantage of the growing popularity of
women's lib and their advertising showed it. The Super Queens were touted as
proof "that anything the crime busting men can do, the women can do better."

Unfortunately, the Queens were a major flop. Boys thought they were too
girly, and girls thought they were too boyish. So much so, that the girls who
did have them were likely to toss their super-clothes and dress them up like
Barbie. So, as you can imagine, that means that finding complete sets of these
dolls today is incredibly difficult. This, coupled with the fact that a very
limited number of them were manufactured in the first place, makes them among
the most rare and valuable of collectibles.

You can learn all about the
Super Queens in Chapter Six Michael Eury's fantastic Captain Action - the
Original Super-hero Action Figure (see Scoop 1-10-03 for more).